Translation tools, such as Trados and Memsource, are commonly used in the modern translation industry. 

In this two-part article, we shall look at the merits of translation tools and discuss whether it is a win-win situation, or whether there are any disadvantages to their use, firstly from the perspective of the client, and, in the second-part, from the perspective of the translator.

Translation tools typically break up a file into unformatted segments, for ease of translation, which contain tags that enable the English-to-Japanese translated document to be reassembled with the original formatting once the translation is complete. This formatting includes the placement of images, paragraphing, and stylizations, such as bold text or italics.

The merit to the client, however, essentially comes from the use of translation memories. The tool identifies when the contents of two segments are an identical or close match, and automatically repeats text and provides suggestions to the translator based on the translation memory or term base (database of preferred terms) provided in advance. 

This has two main advantages for the client. Firstly, it provides a clear way of differentiating between original text and repetitions within the source file. This allows the client to argue that they should only pay full rate for original text within the file, and that they should not be charged for repetitions, or at least should be charged at a reduced rate.

Secondly, being able to provide term bases within the tool, that can be followed much more easily by the translator than a separate terms list, contributes to more consistent terminology usage within the document and allows the client to impose their preferred terms on the translator.

So, is this completely a win-win for the client? Not quite. For simple documents this works well, but the client often faces issues when reassembling documents with more complex formatting back into their original formats. This problem mainly stems from word order differences between languages. Picture a single sentence containing multiple tags, the first of which indicates that the word that follows it should be in bold type. The Japanese translator will be using the appropriate word order of the target language, so the first word may not relate to the term the original document intended to emphasize in bold.

Thus, extensive re-formatting is often required on the reassembled document to format the document correctly. So, for the client, whereas translation tools have obvious advantages, they are by no means a win-win.  In the second part of this article, we will look at the merits/demerits of translation tools for translators.

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Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Translation Services Japan, Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

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In the first part of this article, we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of translation tools, such as Trados or Memsource, from the client perspective.

We also noted that, by providing translation memories, the client can identify repeated sections of the text, based on which they can adjust the rate at which the job is billed, and by using the same translation memories in conjunction with term bases, they are able to direct the translator to standardize on particular, preferred terms. However, on the negative side, we pointed out that when reassembling documents with heavy formatting based on the tool, differences in word order between languages will often mean that extensive manual editing is required.

What about from the perspective of the translator? There are certainly some clear benefits. As the text is broken nicely up into segments, the translator can concentrate on translating without having to concern him or herself with formatting. In terms of repeats in the text as well, whereas this may mean that they can bill less for, for example, the Japanese English translation, the effort required in completing the translation is significantly reduced. The use of translation memories and term bases, as well, not only provides a convenient way of checking the preferred term (without needing to tediously search through external vocabulary lists in Excel etc.) but by “forcing” the translator into using the client’s preferred term, will inevitably lead to them providing a more satisfactory translation, and thus increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

So, is it win-win for the translator? Unfortunately, heavily-formatted files which are a problem on the client side, are also a problem for the Japanese translator. The way that translation tools manage to break text into segments and then reformat them after the translation is complete is with the use of tags. If the text is heavily formatted, one segment can contain a huge amount of tags. Any translator who has had to type a long sentence into a segment by inserting the words one at a time between tags will assure you that this is an extremely tedious and time-consuming practice.

In summary, therefore, from an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of translation tools for both clients and translators, we can conclude that they have very clear benefits on both sides. Their use, however, should perhaps be avoided in texts with extensive formatting, where the time consumed by their use outweighs any other advantages.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Translation Services Japan, Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service

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The first exposure of many new learners to Japanese comes via Romaji, the Latin script rendering of Japanese pronunciation.

The reason for this is usually to allow the student to be able to learn Japanese words that they can use in conversation before tackling the intricacies of Chinese “kanji” characters or the Japanese phonetic syllabaries, Katakana and Hiragana. What can be confusing is that there are multiple systems in active use so the same word (and pronunciation) can be written in different ways. This is an issue for the Japanese translator as it is often necessary to “Romanize” Japanese words when translating into English. This article looks at the key differences between the “Romaji” systems.

There are three main Romaji systems in active use: 

• Hepburn, 
• Nihon-shiki, and 
• Kunrei-shiki. 

The main differences between these systems concern how the sounds we associate with “h” as a letter after another consonant, the “f”, “j”, and “ts”.

The Hepburn system is the closest to English and should be used whenever possible (only possible exceptions are when a company officially uses another form for its name on its website etc.) as its use will avoid confusion in readers of your translation. Hepburn uses “h” where it would normally be used in English (“Mitsubishi” rather than “Mitsubisi” in the other two systems), as well as other double consonants that add clarity “Tsushin” (communications) as part of a name, rather than “Tusin”). Other differences include that, in the other two systems, the sound which is closer to “fu” in English is written as “hu”, and the “j” sound is “dy”, except for “ji” which is “di”. 

Another thing to avoid when you are forced to related Japanese words “as is” in your English text is literally writing double vowel sounds. If you are writing the Japanese name “Koki” with an extended “o” sound (like the word “oar” in English), some romanization systems will depict this as “Kooki”, but writing this in English will give the reader the impression that it should be sounded like “who”. In this case, it is better to be less precise than end up writing something misleading.

In conclusion, as always in translation, you should aim to be consistency. Although it is necessary to be aware of the other systems, you should learn and use the Hepburn system when writing Japanese words literally in English to provide the most intuitive and accessible system to readers of your Japanese English translation who may not be familiar with Japanese pronunciation.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, providers of Quality Japanese Translation Services Tokyo, Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Services

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While machine translation has undoubtedly come in leaps and bounds over the last several decades, there are no signs (thankfully) yet of Japanese to English (and vice versa) translators being forced out of a job.

Politeness levels here refers not to adding specific endings to words and verb forms, but rather the roundabout way that a request is made to express humility in the Japanese language. For example, the expression “I will call you” (DENWA WO SASETE ITADAKIMASU) literally means “I will have you allow me to call you”, and this kind of expression that reveals the attitude of the speaker is hard for machines to grasp.

Another aspect that is difficult for machine translation with Japanese is subject ambiguity. It is often not clear from Japanese whether the subject is male or female, and in a long sentence the subject is often completely left to the inference of the reader. If you see samples of machine translation, they will often not include a subject at all when translating from Japanese to English and this is not only extremely confusing for the reader, but also leads to poor quality Japanese translation. A human translator will often need to confirm with the end user about the subject being referred to in the sentence. This creates major obstacles for machine translation.

The final aspect I would like to cover is inferred meaning. Another aspect of the Japanese language is the use of euphemisms and indirect meaning in expression to avoid confrontation. Case in point, when a Japanese person is requested to do something, they may answer that it is difficult when what they are actually saying is “No”. Judging whether the writer really means something is difficult or whether there is an implied meaning is hard enough for a human to judge but can be almost impossible for a machine translation.

In conclusion, deep learning and other technology has improved the quality of machine translation, but inherent aspects of Japanese still present some serious obstacles, such as politeness levels, subject ambiguity, and inferred meaning, for a fully working machine language translation system.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, providers of Quality Japanese Translation Tokyo, Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Services

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In the first of this two-part series, we shall look at reasons why, in many cases, it is difficult for end users to get high quality work when requesting the translation of highly-specialized translations.

In the second part we shall take a look at what the end user can do to assist the Japanese translator and thus improve the standard of the submitted work.

I believe there are two main reasons why end users are up against it when trying to get specialized topics translated well. The first is simply that there is a shortage of translators with knowledge of specialist topics. This is particularly true in natural science fields. When students major in subjects at university, they tend to gravitate towards either sciences or humanities. Translation involves writing and naturally favors those with humanities-based skills. For this reason, people with both a scientific background, skills in writing, and, on top of that, skills in a foreign language are definitely something of a rarity.

Another reason for this, however, is the business pressures faced by translation companies. Translation companies like any other business will only succeed if they generate orders. Competition in the market is such that it does not pay translation companies to turn down work from end users, who are likely to permanently go elsewhere. Say, for example, they have a potential client wanting a highly technical translation in the field of cryogenics. The company may not have translators with a specialty that exactly matches this. From a business perspective, however, they will be inclined to accept the work and attempt to find a solution later. At this point, they have committed to the client, so what follows will be a consistent series of compromises looking for the translator with the next closest specialty to this. Even if the translation company has a cryogenics expert among their translator base, there is no guarantee the professional translator will be available at that time.

As mentioned in previous articles, the advent of the Internet with instant vocabulary searches has made it easier for translators to tackle a wider range of fields. For the reasons described above, however, it is still difficult to get high quality Japanese translation in truly specialized fields. There are things that the end user can do to increase the quality of the work submitted to them. We shall look at some of these in the next article.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, providers of Quality English Japanese Translation Service Tokyo, Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Services

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Round, Square, Curly, or Angled? Boost the Professionalism of your Japanese Translation Services!

In today’s article, I will be discussing all things brackets (or parentheses as they are more commonly known in North America).

The main types in use are round brackets and square brackets, although curly and angled brackets are also seen. Today’s article looks at the best way to use, and not over-use, brackets. We will first look at the more seldom-used curly and angled brackets before covering the use of the more common rounded and square brackets.

Curly brackets are most commonly used in academic fields such as mathematics or science, and, as they would just be copied as is, are of little interest to the Japanese translator in terms of bracket selection. Angled brackets, also known as chevrons, are also commonly seen in mathematics and physics, but also have the usage of indicating internal thought as in the following example:

“Pleased to meet you” <What a loser!>

Double-angled brackets can also indicate a status. For example:

<<offline>>

The most commonly used form of brackets is rounded brackets and they are commonly used to separate off information that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. For example:

Paul comes from Hammersmith (in London).

The content in parentheses adds extra information but the sentence exists perfectly well without it.

More specifically, rounded brackets can be used to add the comments of the writer:

The old mom-and-pop store (hardly surprisingly) soon went out of business.

Square brackets, on the other hand, are often used with quotations. For example, they can be used to clarify something in a quote:

“The man claimed that he truly loved his hometown [Liverpool]”.

Square brackets are also used with the word [sic] to accurately quote a source but indicate that there is an error. For example:

“Internal in-fighting is not good for moral[sic]”.

Lastly, square brackets can be used to indicate that a certain portion of the quote has been omitted:

“Real Madrid are one of the most successful teams of this generation […] and are going for their third consecutive Champions League title in 2018”.

Just as important as learning to use brackets properly is learning not to over-use them (there has been a recent trend for using brackets when a comma would be more appropriate). Learning to use brackets in the right way, however, will increase the professionalism of your Japanese translation services, and is an important skill for professional translators to master.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Translation Services Japan, Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

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Continuing on from previous articles where I have attempted to give useful advice for budding new freelance translators or salaried Japanese translators wishing to take the plunge into the freelance world, in the first part of this article, I would like to discuss issues related to the setting of translation rates.

In the second part, I will look at possible approaches for dealing with this.

In my experience, it is very rare that you will be negotiating a rate with a Japanese translation agency when you first start working for them. Usually, they will offer a rate and you will decide whether you want to do the work or not. Therefore, setting a minimum rate for your services normally equates to deciding which clients/translation agencies you are prepared to work with.

As a freelance translator, I have had the experience of working for two different agencies on the same day, one of which is offering a rate five times that of the other. So, if you have clients offering a good rate, why would you work for peanuts? The reason for this is the wild swings in supply and demand in the translation market.

As discussed in previous articles, jobs seem to come in huge waves and after that wave is over, you can be twiddling your thumbs for weeks. As time goes on without better paid work coming in, your anxiety may grow causing you to accept lower paid work if available. On first consideration, this is not such a problem. You may think that you can just take higher paid jobs when available and lower paid English Japanese translation projects when the market is slow.

The issue with this is that you generally find that if you say “no” to a agency several times, they will just start working with someone else. Translators may turn down lower-paid work when they are busy, only to wish they had the work when things slow down again. Another approach is to just accept everything even when you are busy. However, time is limited, and trying to do everything may cause health problems and/or quality issues. You may also face the extremely annoying situation of agreeing to do lower paid work and then needing to refuse a higher paid job that comes in after this, as you have already committed to the lower paid work. In the second part of this article, I will look at possible approaches to this dilemma.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of the Translation Agency Japan Tokyo. Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Service

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This is the third and (those of you who are thoroughly bored with the topic will be pleased to hear) final part of a series of articles looking at the advantages and disadvantages of using voice recognition (VR) software in translation.

In the first part, we took a statistical approach and outlined the speed benefits, whereas in the second part we discussed some minor drawbacks with its use. In this final part, I would like to turn things positive again and look at some additional benefits to using voice recognition in addition to mere speed of transcription.

The first of these is not so much related to English Japanese translation as to general communication. Although VR software is extremely adept at learning your patterns of speech for good recognition, you will still need to enunciate your words clearly, and this in itself is excellent training for public speaking as well as general communication. In the few weeks that I have spent using the software I have become keenly aware how, when I speak, I can “swallow” words at the beginning of sentences as well as articles within the sentence. After using the software for a while you will notice patterns in which words are not being picked up, and this is very instructive.

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I have also found that being forced to speak the sentence, rather than just write it, has helped rid me of a bad habit that I had when translating by starting to translate the sentence before reading the whole sentence. When you are writing the sentence, you can go back and change the beginning quite easily. However, being forced to understand the whole sentence before you start, as you need to do with VR, is a much better way of organizing your ideas and is more efficient. In the same way, that the software gets better at understanding what you are saying, you will also get better at arranging your thoughts for efficient output. Even in the short time I have been using VR software, I have noticed ever increasing returns in terms of its benefits.

In conclusion, if you can get beyond the minor drawbacks of the initial expense, and also adapting your working style to accommodate a quiet environment, I would seriously recommend VR software as a means of increasing your efficiency and Japanese translation performance.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, owner of the Japan Translation Company Tokyo, providers of Japanese certified translation Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Service

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It is commonly understood in psychology that your mind is made up of three levels – the conscious, subconscious and unconscious.

Your conscious mind makes up only 10% of your brain capacity, and your subconscious and unconscious minds making up 50-60% and 30-40% respectively. Knowing how these different levels work together has the potential to improve your English Japanese translation ability.

First, let us consider how these areas of the mind work together. Your conscious mind communicates to the outside world through speech and writing etc., and inner self through thought. Your subconscious mind is in charge of recent memories and is in continuous contact with the resources of the unconscious mind. Your unconscious mind is the storehouse of all memories and past experiences including those that have been repressed through trauma etc.

We can use the analogy of a PC, with your conscious mind the keyboard, your subconscious mind the memory (RAM), and your unconscious mind the hard disk.

So how does this relate to professional Japanese translation?

I first looked into this topic due to a phenomenon I have experienced on numerous occasions during the course of my translation career. Sometimes I read a difficult piece of Japanese text and cannot work out the meaning, so I put that section to one side, planning to ask a native Japanese translator at a later date. Then, when several hours or a day or so later I come back to the text, I realize that I actually understand it without needing to ask.

What is happening here, to return to the computer analogy, is that after your conscious mind first gives up on working out the meaning, a background process is started in your brain and the interaction of your subconscious and your unconscious mind works to unravel the meaning. Then when you return to it again, your conscious mind is able to access this understanding.

This suggests that the best approach to translation is to read through the piece to be translated and then start working on it the next day. Realistically, many deadlines occur within the same day, so this is not possible. However, you should give yourself as much time as possible, particularly where the subject matter is complex and cannot be fully grasped the first time within your conscious mind. Harnessing the three levels of the mind for translation in this way should improve the overall quality of your translation work.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, owner of Professional English Japanese Translation Tokyo, Japan. Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Services

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In the first part of this article, I looked at points to be careful of when deciding whether to take a Japanese translation job at all.

In this week’s article, I will address some points to note when quoting for work. This also includes, of course, when you are deciding whether or not to accept the offered rate.

As mentioned in the first part of this article, it is a good idea to make it standard practice to view the source document, or a sample of it, in advance. The time you spend on the work (and, therefore, the price at which it makes business sense for you to do the work) will differ depending on the complexity of the work.

You should also consider whether you will be expected to format the document or to add numbers to tables, which the end-user often does not expect to pay for but will be time-consuming for you nonetheless. In case you are expected to do this, you should negotiate with the translation company whether they can add a formatting charge on top of the normal rate.

As you gain experience as a Japanese translator, you will learn what things are time-consuming. For example, using translation software, such as Trados, means that you will not need to do formatting. However, if the source text is heavily formatted, this may lead to a huge number of tags in the Trados document. Working with these tags can be very laborious, and this effort must be considered when you quote for a job.

Lastly, beware of the fact that some unscrupulous companies may use the fact that a character count is not readily available for certain formats, such as images and PDF files, to persuade you to accept an unreasonably low flat rate for a job. Although time-consuming in the beginning, it is worth taking the trouble to count the characters yourself, even roughly, to make sure the fee is within your normal range.

In conclusion, many translation companies/end-users will offer you a job based on a set number of characters for a certain fee. Note, however, as described above, not all characters are equal and it is important to carefully estimate the total effort required in a job before setting, or agreeing to, the price for the work.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Translation Services Japan, Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

As discussed in previous articles, translation tools in general have both benefits and drawbacks for the translator.

There are many translation tools on the market. Popular ones include Trados, Wordfast, and Memsource and, as many translation jobs require proficiency in such tools, it is essential for Japanese translators to familiarize themselves with their usage. My experience is that each individual tool has both merits and demerits, and none of the tools are just as I would like them. In the first part of this article, I will discuss where I think current tools have problems and in the second part, I will look at what tool manufacturers could do to solve such problems. The problem areas I have identified are in the area of search/consistency, tags, and QA.

The first area I would like to discuss is search/consistency. One advantage of translation tools for the end user is that where there is an exact match or partial match for the same source text, the tool offers this as an option to the translator or automatically populates the segment. This only works, however, where there is enough of a match between the two source segments and does not always help the translator keep consistency for terms used within the Japanese translation. The search feature of the tool should be enhanced to do this.

The second area is tags. Tags are used by the tool to help recreate the formatting of the original document once the translation in the tool is complete. However, heavily tagged documents can be an almighty headache for the translator as they require them to place individual words within the tags, which is very time consuming. There needs to be a more efficient way of dealing with tags in translation tools.

The final area I would like to discuss is QA. Running QA after you finish the translation helps you find errors within your translation and is a very helpful feature. Commonly, however, it is over-sensitive and gives many false-negatives. One example of this with Japanese to English translation is that it will claim the number “1” is missing when you translate “ichigatsu” as January. This not only makes the QA process time-consuming, but also tempts the translator to skip over flagged issues quickly, meaning that real issues are missed.

In the second part of this article, I will outline how I would like translation tools to behave, if I could build the perfect translation tool.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of the Japanese Translation Company Tokyo, Japan. Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Service

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A little over two months, I wrote a series of article on voice recognition.

At that time, I argued that although there were drawbacks to using voice recognition (VR), such as the initial expense, once you had adapted your working environment to VR, it was a useful tool for increasing your efficiency and translation performance. Fast forward two months and, a little disappointingly, I have found that I am using VR far less than I thought I would.

One reason for this is discovering that VR simply does not suit certain types of translation. English-based VR works by recognizing when you have said one of the words in its memory. If, therefore, you are translating a document with a lot of Japanese names and/or place names that will not be found, you will be forced to either spell them out or type them yourself into the document and this slows down the speed of your Japanese translation. Of course, you can train the software to recognize the names but there is such a huge range of possibilities that this would take a long time.

This leads to the discussion of another factor. As noted before, using VR is an investment not only financially, but in terms of time as well. When using VR, if the software “mishears” you, you basically have two options. The quicker way is to type over the mistaken word, but the better long-term approach is to train the software what you really said. You need to spend time now to save time later, and this is easier said than done when you get busy.

Another issue is that, as you need to prepare a quiet, private environment to do VR properly, it is very easy to get out of the habit of doing this. As I was traveling much of the summer while working, I seldom found myself in an environment to be able to use VR effectively and found that even after returning home, it was much easier to fall back into the established routine of typing Japanese English translation.

From the above, we can conclude that although there are tool limitations in VR software, effectively using VR can be more a matter of conquering your own psychological limitations, such as entrenching good habits and being willing to make a time investment now for enhanced returns later.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Translation Services Japan, Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

At first glance, the difference between translation and paraphrasing seems very straightforward.

Translation involves starting with one language (source language) and ending with another language (target language). According to the Oxford English dictionary, to paraphrase means to

“express the meaning of (something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity.”

So, in a sense, paraphrasing is translation when the source and target language are the same. If we look, however, at what translation is, or at least what it should be, we can see that paraphrasing is an essential part of translation.

It is a fact with translation that the audience for an original (source) document and the translated (target) document will normally be mutually exclusive. This is because, when given the option, people will generally choose to read a document in the language in which they are most comfortable. Apart from situations when translating between different languages spoken within the same country (if, say, you were translating between French and Flemish for Belgian nationals), there are normally major cultural differences between the respective audiences.

The role of the translator, therefore, goes beyond simply rewriting everything existing in the source language document in the translation, and involves communicating the ideas in a way that the target reader, with their specific national and cultural background, can understand. An example of this would be correspondence between a student and professor at a university. In English, similar language would be used by the two parties. In Japanese, however, the student would need to show deference to the professor. If the aforementioned correspondence was translated English to Japanese literally, the reader would find it very confusing as the status of the parties is unclear.

It is necessary, therefore, to change the way that the ideas are expressed to adjust for the cultural differences between Western countries and Japan. You are expressing the meaning of something using different words to achieve greater clarity. Does this sound familiar? A professional translator will incorporate paraphrasing skills into their Japanese translation to add cultural sensitivity to the final product and clarify the intended meaning to the reader. 

In conclusion, although at first glance translation and paraphrasing would seem completely different activities, it can be argued that paraphrasing is a necessary part of translation to bridge the gap between the cultural backgrounds that exist between the respective audiences for the source and target document.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Translation Services Japan, Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

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In the first part of this two-part article, I would like to address the topic of seemingly “untranslatable” words or phrases between Japanese and English, looking at different types of these, whereas in the second part of the article I will address how the translator should aim to handle each type of scenario and whether anything is truly untranslatable.

Here, I will classify the untranslatable Japanese terms as untranslatable:

1. Based on cultural context,
2. Due to different language constructs, and
3. Due to succinct language. I will give some examples of each below.

In terms of (1) above, a good example of this is the word “senpai”. This word is a term of respect literally meaning “superior” or “predecessor” and can refer to either an older colleague in your company or an older student at school. There is no such term to refer to a predecessor in your social position in English, which makes this term virtually untranslatable. There is also formal text used at the start of Japanese letters etc. giving lofty thanks for the customer’s support and praying for their continued success that would not be found in English.

The different language constructs referenced in (2) above refer to different ways of expressing ideas that preclude a direct translation. For example, in Japanese you often say the word describing an emotion when you feel that emotion. For example, you may say “kowai” when you feel scared or “itai” when you feel pain. At least, in the latter case, we have things we say in English when we feel pain, such as “Ouch!”. There is no such exclamatory term in English for when we feel frightened, however, and this makes the term “kowai” used in the situation untranslatable.

Lastly there are simply terms which are succinctly summed up in one word in Japanese which have no equivalent words in English. For example, there is the word “Komorebi”. This literally means “sunlight that filters through leaves of the trees”. This is not limited to Japanese of course. In German, for example, there is “schadenfreude” (a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to somebody else).

These terms offer unique challenges to the Japanese translator and it is important to have a systematic approach to dealing with them in your work. I will give some suggestions for this in the next part of this article and discuss whether these terms are actually “untranslatable” or not.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Professional Japanese Translation. Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-guarantee.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

In the first part of this article, I looked at seemingly “untranslatable” words between Japanese and English and classified these terms into those (1) untranslatable based on cultural context, (2) untranslatable due to different language constructs, and (3) untranslatable due to succinct language.

In this second part of the article, we shall look at how the Japanese translator should address each of these scenarios, and whether anything is truly untranslatable.

For (1), we took the example of the word “Senpai”, which means superior or predecessor but includes many assumptions about Japanese hierarchical society. Unless the situation can be explained accurately using different culturally equivalent terms, I would suggest the best way of handling such terms would be state the term in romaji but leave a footnote explaining what the term literally means. This will allow the document to flow more easily from a structural point of view while avoiding confusion about what the term literally means.

I would suggest taking a similar approach for (3). Examples of these are terms where one word in the source language has no set equivalent in the target language (for example, “schadenfreude” in German). Whereas it is not good to overuse “borrowed” words before they become part of the general vocabulary, it is undeniable that being able to express ideas such as “schadenfreude” in one word has enriched our language. The translator can play a part in this process, while simultaneously overcoming the dilemma of the untranslatable term.

Whereas (1) and (3) are untranslatable ideas as one word, the ideas can still be expressed in English. Cases of (2) are much more difficult. We used the example of Japanese people actually saying the word “kowai” (which means “scared”) when they are in fact scared. I think this is as close as a word comes to being completely untranslatable. So how should the translator deal with this? Any attempt to make a literal translation will make the English text very unnatural so in this case, the translator needs to take some license. To continue with the example above, if the Japanese text has a girl saying “kowai”, this can only be translated like “the girl shivered with fear”. Many translators feel resistance about doing this, but it is the best option. It would definitely be worth sending a note on this when you deliver the Japanese English translation, however.

About the Author
Simon Way is a contributing author to SAECULII YK, the owner of Professional English Japanese Translation. Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news by Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-guarantee.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Many translation companies and agencies offer Machine Translation (MT) as free online translations, free language translation, and simply free translation. 

The Babel Fish Translation Service by Altavista, which was used for this experiment, is is powered by Systran (maker of machine translation software). Note that this service is no longer available at babelfish.yahoo.com; however, you can still access the service at https://www.babelfish.com/

Is machine translation right for your translation project, though?

Select a short sentence -2 at the most- and run it through the Babel Fish Translation:

• Select the English to Japanese translation option from the dropdown box labeled Step 1.
• Paste your source text into the input box labeled Step 2.
• Click the button labeled Translate in Step 3.

You have a free Japanese translation!

But is this right for your translation project? Complete the exercise to find out:

• Select and copy the translated Japanese text from the top output box.
• This time, select the Japanese to English translation option from the dropdown box labeled Step 1.
• Paste the translated text into the input box labeled Step 2.
• Click the button labeled Translate in Step 3.

Essentially, what we've done here is simply reversed the translation back into English. Click here for a graphic illustration of this exercise

Accuracy estimates vary greatly depending on who is researching (30%) and who is selling (98%) machine translation software. Our research indicates 70% is a fair assessment for machine translation accuracy. And, this is another fact machine translation software vendors conveniently forget to mention:

Accuracy is defined by WORD translation (i.e. word recognition), not by sentence, or contextual, translation.

From a perspective of nearly 2 decades of professional Japanese translation experience, machine translation is efficient in looking up dictionary terms (meaning of words). In most cases, I find it is much more productive to simply do the translation myself.

I definitely would not use machine translation for business or anything remotely requiring accuracy.

Wall Street Journal (2002)

And, if it is not acceptable for business, you can bet the farm that it is not acceptable for translation where the quality requirements are much, much more stringent such as Certified Japanese Translation

Translation by its very nature represents everything that is human -- Thought! Translation is a uniquely human activity that requires enormous language skills and subject matter (i.e. finance, legal, medical etc) expertise with years of experience.

Machine translation offered free is most effective in the following situations:

• Fields with highly limited ranges of vocabulary and very simple sentence structures.
• For "gisting" or, to get the general meaning (gist) of a document.

Machine translation is useful for translation projects that have ALL the following project requirements:

• Internal consumption.
• Limited budget.
• Short turn-around.
• Quality is not important.

As you can see, while the cost may be right, machine translation is not a credible translation solution where translation quality, as measured by accuracy of sentence (context), is paramount -- Definitely NOT a substitute for professional translation.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Certified Japanese Translation Services Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-certified-translations.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Ever wondered about are the costs of translation errors in the market place?

Here’s an article with real world examples showing how companies end up with costly translations. Read Translation: Are You Costing Your Company Money? - Real World Examples. Many, in fact most, companies lose money to translation errors according to an influential research survey cited in this article.

Translation errors cause lost revenue in 80% of global firms. (Source: SDL International Survey)

That may be interesting in-and-of-itself; however, you want to know the specifics, the who, the what and the how much, right? You’re on to something there -- That’s the real interesting stuff! Here you’ll find the details of some of the more spectacular translation errors:

• Technology
• Brands
• Products & Services
• Machines translation
• Small business

It goes without saying that this list just scratches the surface. In much the same way Internet security breaches are concealed; most companies are reluctant to reveal the true cost of translation snafus because of the negative publicity it brings.

That’s where you come in!

If you believe you have the best translation blooper, then share it! Let our readers put it to the vote to find out if you really have the best translation error of all time! Simply contact us with the details, and we’ll post your blooper on our &DISCUSS translation blog.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Japan, Tokyo based Japanese Translation Service Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Spend a few minutes on this article to ensure your projects are a success every, single time.

What is the best translation service provider for your project -- Freelance or Organization?
Both a freelance translator and a translation organization (company, agency, firm) can be appropriate for your translation needs. Professional translation service companies will typically charge more due to the added value factor (project management, quality control, file conversions, standardized presentations for multilingual projects and additional services, etc). Further, translation service firms generally carry liability insurance which becomes more relevant as the financial risk of your project increases.

Consider the full requirements and financial risk of your translation project when selecting a translation service provider.

What is the size and complexity of your translation project?
Selecting a professional translation service that provides one-stop shopping (full service & additional, value added services), as opposed to several smaller organizations, can lower the overall cost for projects that are large, require multilingual translations or require additional services such as DTP or localization. On the other hand, these types of companies have a large overhead which translates into higher cost per unit that small projects do not warrant.

The size and complexity of your project is an important factor when it comes time to deciding on a translation service company.

What price range are you comfortable paying for professional translations?
Obviously, a high price does not necessarily guarantee high quality Japanese translation. However, below a certain price you are highly unlikely to receive professional translation that is beneficial to your service or product. Calculate how much you spent developing the product or service that you want to promote in Japan. Determine what the potential revenue is from gaining access to the Japan market. Consider how much time you spent creating the original, or source, text.

Research at least 3 price quotes from professional translation service companies (NOTE: estimates and quotes should not cost anything). Establish a price range that considers cost and the factors listed above, and that you are comfortable with. Then stick to it.

What pricing system does the translation service agency use?
We have all experienced situations where we are left feeling dumb after the n^th explanation of a pricing structure. This is a well-documented selling technique -- It's called the high pressure technique and you are supposed to feel dumb! There are about as many pricing structures as there are translation service providers out there. I strongly recommend getting an official quote based on the number of words in the source text before you commit.

Select a translation service that has an unambiguous pricing system, a system that does not leave you with delayed sticker shock.

What is the translation service company’s policy for assigning jobs to translators?
Is that my business you ask? You bet! Professional translators translate languages into their native language, only. For example, I am bilingual having graduated from a Japanese university (economics), and have lived and worked in Japan for over 20 years. I only do Japanese to English translations (never English to Japanese). That is, I only work into English, my mother tongue (native language).

Ensure that your project gets a professional translation by insisting that it is assigned to a qualified translator that will be working into his/her native language.

What if a professional translation service company serves up a bilingual person?
As long as he (she) is a translator, no problem. Confused? Bilinguals are fluent in 2 languages but this doesn't necessary mean that they are proficient in moving information between 2 languages, especially in writing. Translators are bilinguals and writers capable of moving information between the source language and the target language to produce text that reads naturally in the target language.

Always go with the professional translator for professional translations!

What technical, or subject matter, expertise does the professional translation company bring to the table?
Translation is about language (moving information from a source language to a target language - English into Japanese) AND technical, or subject matter, expertise. Have you ever tried to write about a topic that you had little or no knowledge of in your native language? Although you had no problem with the language, it wasn't easy, right? And the finished product almost certainly lacked natural flow and conviction that comes with knowledge and experience.

Improve the quality of your translations project by selecting an company that has the technical, or subject matter, expertise suitable to your product or service. This is professional translation!

What project management system does the translation service firm have in place?
Managing large and complex projects is a difficult task -- Lack of a robust project management system can increase errors and delays (misplaced documents and communications), and, ultimately, your costs. Did I mention frustration?

Look for a professional translation service firm that has invested in a project management system (an indication of commitment to producing professional translations in and of itself).

What is the translation service company's policy on sample work?
Many experts suggest insisting on sample work before committing. This is a tricky one. Non-disclosure agreements will almost surely be in effect (and if not, you should be thinking about your intellectual property rights). Most professional organizations will understandably be reluctant to provide client work as a sample. More importantly, consider this: What trust can you place in a company that serves up a client’s translation project as sample work (your material may be served up to another potential client!)? Personally, I believe that commissioning a short trial translation and having it checked by a knowledgeable third party is a better option.

You make the call!

Does the professional translation service have a client agreement? Is it fair? Does it provide for issue resolution? Does it include a non-disclosure clause?
Everyone knows that these types of legal documents are designed for the benefit of the issuing entity. Still, an agreement that is (somewhat) fair and provides for issue resolution before litigation is indicative of that provider’s business philosophy and ethics. When was the last time that you closely examined a legal document that you were party to? Non-disclosure clauses ensure that your intellectual property rights are covered -- If they do not have a service agreement, then they are not a professional translations service.

If you need an agreement, then insist on an agreement, and read the fine print! Of course, often translation projects are too small or repetitive to review an agreement all the time. Work with what you are comfortable with.

What relationship does the professional translation service offers?
Chances are that you will have an ongoing (long-term) need for translation services as you develop new services and products for the Japan market. Calculate the cost (time and money) required to research what professional translation service is right for your translation projects. Now, think about that cost if you were to search anew for each translation project that you launch.

Select a professional translation company that offers a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. Your boss will appreciate the savings, and you will get to keep your hair a bit longer!

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Japanese Translation Service Tokyo, Japan. Visit SAECULII for the latest case studies, articles and news on Professional Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Guarantee the success of your translation project by taking a few more minutes to truly prepare with this free professional translation checklist.

Peace of Mind; Priceless!

New & Improved!

The original translation checklist posted here has been re-organized and expanded on to include the following checklists:

• Quality
• Turnaround
• Service Satisfaction
• Price

(The guide’s modular design makes the contents easy to digest, not to mention pick-up where you left off if you have to step away for a minute.)

Click here for the new & improved Free Professional Japanese Translation Guide

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, Professional Japanese Translators Tokyo, Japan. Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service.

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-quality.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

That is if you don’t want to be denied boarding at your country of departure, or worse denied entry at your country of destination, as recently happened to my family.

(And, although this article is headlined for our Japan based customers, know that anyone traveling international with children -regardless of country of departure or destination- should read this article to be prepared for the unexpected.)

Before we get into the meat of this incident, let me first clarify that I’m not talking about passports & letters of consent, documents that have traditionally seen you cross international boundaries without any hassles. No, sir -- We’re now in a whole new era altogether.

The first sign that something was amiss came right at our boarding call at Tokyo International Airport, more commonly known as Haneda Airport. A Cathay Pacific representative -in fact, the very same check-in counter girl that handled our check-in some 2 hours earlier- suddenly appeared at our side as we were making our way to the departure gate. The understatement that followed was no less of a bombshell: There is a problem with your boarding said the girl.

The problem, as it turns out, was that 

My wife and I did not have any personal legal documentation to prove that our daughter was, well, our daughter!

Without that crucial documentation, the Cathay Pacific representative informed us that, since we would be denied entry at our final destination, South Africa, the airline could not allow us to board. 

The intent of this law is aimed at combating human trafficking and child abductions, which has become a global epidemic in recent years. Here are those Regulations for children travelling to SA And, here’s the part that you want to pay attention to:

"In terms of the new regulations, when parents are travelling with a child they need to produce an unabridged birth certificate that shows the names of both parents. In cases where the certificate is in a language other than English, it must be accompanied by a sworn translation issued by a competent authority in the country concerned."

The critical information in this passage is familial relationship (i.e. name of both parents), sworn or certified Japanese translation, and by a competent authority in Japan.

As such, there actually are several documents you can get from your local ward office that meet these requirements:

• Family Register (Koseki Tohon)
• Notification of Birth (Shussei Todoke)*
• Certificate of Birth Registration (Shussei Todoke Jurishomeisho)
• Residence Certificate (Jyuminhyo)

NOTE*
The Certificate of Birth (Shusseishomeisho), normally issued together with the Notification of Birth, only shows the mother’s name, and as such may not per the regulation above be appropriate for travel purposes.

Seems straight forward enough, right? Well, sometimes you‘ll run into problems, as we did. Cathay Pacific recommended we translate the Family Register (Koseki Tohon) or the Notification of Birth (Shussei Todoke) which both show familial relationships. However, these documents could only be issued in my wife’s Permanent Domicile (Honseiki) and not in Tokyo where we live - We simply did not have the one week it would take to get those documents. The Certificate of Birth Registration (Shussei Todoke Jurishomeisho), however, included familial relationships AND it was to be had at our local ward office. For good measure, we also had the ward office issue a Residence Certificate (Jyuminhyo).

The next step is certified translation by a competent authority in Japan. Well, now, why would I not use the same Certified Japanese Translation Services that I provide our customers! Our documents were accepted, and we made a belated departure for South Africa without any further drama.

The intent of this law is certainly good - That is, unless you’re into abducting children! Problem, though, is the implementation. 

My daughter’s passport lists her mother (my wife), who she was traveling together with. Indeed, the local ward office could not understand the need for additional documentation given that the required information was already listed in the child’s passport – Neither can I…Second, I had already travelled to South Africa with my daughter 3 years earlier meaning there’s a record of us entering and departing the country without any Interpol alert issued for a child abduction or a warrant issued for a child abductor. Finally, stuff happens in life; there were extenuating circumstances in our sudden trip, the funeral of a direct family member.

Really good laws consider the complete picture. 

As it were, we literally walked off the plane into a funeral. And, although we departed only 2 days later than initially planned, the cost of re-booking flights, un-necessary transportation to the airport, and getting the documents & certified translation was US$850. You can avoid these additional costs traveling international with children with the right personal legal documents translated and certified Japanese English.

And, no parent wants to witness the sight of their child going into meltdown as the plane that they’re supposed to be on is pulling away from the apron…

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Tokyo based Certified Translation Service Japanese English Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-certified-translations.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.